MTU to Produce Engines for Airbus

MTU, Germany’s largest aero engine company and the world’s largest independent supplier (as measured by sales), of engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) plans to double its business by 2020. Not surprisingly, it is everywhere at ILA, with exhibits in eight different places showcasing its portfolio of products and services including commercial and military engines, MRO, and its Polish affiliate.

Munich-based MTU Aero Engines, the world’s fifth largest aero engine manufacturer, is preparing to enter its largest-ever airliner production program: it will assemble, test and deliver some 30% of all Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-JM geared turbofan (GTF) engines to power the AirbusA320NEO.

With many of them destined for Airbus’s Hamburg assembly plant, those A320NEOs will carry a “Made in Germany” cachet. Some 600 PW-powered A320NEOs have been ordered to date.

“This is another step forward, to do a full commercial engine and its systems integration,” says MTU CEO Egon Behle. And he noted the value to Airbus of having two lines supplying GTF engines – the other will be at Pratt & Whitney in the U.S. That site has not yet been announced.

MTU is no stranger to producing finished engines: it has most recently been responsible for the EJ200 engines for the Eurofighter, and will assemble and deliver all TP400-D6 engines for the A400M military transport. The PW1100G-JM will be built on an adjacent line, enabling MTU to switch workers between the GTF and civil-certified TP400 as required. Production of the GTF could begin as soon as mid-2015.

MTU has an 18% share in the PW1100G-JM, and manufactures the high-speed low-pressure turbine, the forward four stages of the high-pressure compressor, which are made as blisks, and the brush seals. Behle estimates that MTU will have invested EUR 30 million in blisk production and final assembly of the engine.